Greenbelt Festival, etc.

I'm hoping to get over to Cheltenham for at least a day or two this weekend to party with the folks at the Greenbelt Festival. I've heard a lot about the event from various sources, but I'm looking forward to checking it out for myself. From what I understand, the opportunity that the organizers give for participation, artistic expression, and creative exchange is unprecedented in the world of Christian festivals. For example, there will be three designated busking stages, where anybody who wants to can set up their instruments and play for anyone within earshot. (Hmmm . . . then again, could prove to be as disasterous as a night of drunken karaoke.) There will also be platforms for poetry, art galleries, web media experiments, drama, and various creative worship experiences, along with teaching times and music performances ranging from rock 'n roll to classical. *sigh* This is the way Christianity should be - wholistic.

I so appreciate the underlying philosophy that seems to drive this festival organization: The Christian faith is meant to pervade all of life, especially including creativity and the arts. It seems that, at one time (or maybe at various times) in history, the Church used the arts to point to the creativity of God and to the aesthetics of faith. At some point (maybe when the reformers took a "throw the baby out with the bath water" approach to art?), the protestant church lost touch with the value of creative expression and collided with this strange "secular vs. sacred" dichotomy, thus relegating the arts to suspicious worldliness.

You'll have to excuse my equivocal little rant. For a much more masterful treatment of these issues please consider reading Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts (by Steve Turner) or any number of works by Francis Shaffer.

So anyway, I'm hoping I can make it up to Greenbelt this weekend.